The Ask Anna Blog

From Perfection to Reality ~ Organizing School Work

This January I’m excited to be doing this series called “From Perfection to Reality”. I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets discouraged looking at pictures in organizing magazines or on organizing blogs, because I know my space isn’t perfect. So this month I am touring some of my friends’ houses to show you how other moms organize their spaces, in real life. The first stop is one of my friends houses who has three little girls, two school age. With having two school age girls there comes a lot of papers and school work. So today she is… Read More

How to Fold Bath Towels for Organized Cupboards

This is a quick tutorial for how to fold bath towels for organized cupboards and maximum storage. Today I’m going to show you a quick tutorial for how to fold bath towels. I have folded my towels like this for many year and their are lots of reasons I prefer this method. I will tell you those at the end, let’s get to the tutorial. Step 1: Lay the bath towel flat, or hold it in your hands with one of the short sides, at the top. Step 2: Fold the towel in half the long way. This will make… Read More

Christmas Decoration Organization

Today I’m going to share a quick Christmas decoration organization tip because when it comes to decorating for the holidays it’s always hard to remember where I put things after 11 months of having them put away. But this year when I pulled out my Christmas decorations I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had done something very smart last year. When I opened my decoration tub, the first thing I saw were little sticky notes that were pinned to my garlands. Why had it taken me 32 years to think of this? And how had I forgotten… Read More

New House Renovations: Picking out Flooring

If you’ve been following along you’ve seen our house get quite the transformation recently. But we’re not done yet! The next BIG step is new flooring. The wood floors that were in our house when we moved in were beautiful but they didn’t cover all the places we wanted them too (the living room, kitchen, guest bathroom) and they weren’t really our style. After looking into how much it would cost to match them we realized it would cost us a small fortune. So since we weren’t really in love with them, and didn’t think it was worth the small… Read More

Gluten Free Vegan Mini Chocolate Peppermint Loaves

‘Tis the season for baking yummy, yummy treats! I get so excited when December rolls around. Christmas is my favorite holiday (for many reasons). I love thinking about what special gifts and goodies I’m going to make for family and friends. I’ve already made my homemade vanilla extract and now I’m moving on to the baked breads and cookies. What to make, what to make? These mini chocolate peppermint loaves are so choco-licious! Gluten, egg, and dairy free, with just enough peppermint extract and an abundance of chocolate chips. Package these up with a little parchment paper, baking twine and… Read More

Pantry Organization Tips

For those of you that saw my pantry makeover and wondered if I had food in my house, the answer is “yes!” Last week I shared my pantry makeover and today I wanted to show you the other side of the pantry and give you some pantry organization tips. You don’t have to have a large pantry to be organized, in fact I have seen more unorganized big pantries, than small ones. I’ve had small pantries for years and always found it easy to organize them because if I wasn’t organized, I wouldn’t have room for all my stuff. Organizing… Read More